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How did you find Lemmy?

One day, I was about to install RedReader through F-droid. For some reason I searched for "Reddit" in the search bar instead of "RedReader" and saw Voyager, Jerboa and some other Lemmy clients there.

I got curious and installed "Eternity for Lemmy". I browsed around, then decided to created my first account on lemmy.ml. Instantly fell in love with how nice most people were, how quickly I got answers and replies and the closely-knit feeling of a small community where it's not surprising to see the same user in many different places.

I found Lemmy and decentralized social media by sheer luck.

I know most of you came here after the reddit API changes to spite the corporate site, but I wonder if there are other stories.

P.S. I find it sort of weird how lemmy.ml censors the word for "female dog". Cmon, that's such a tame and common insult! Can't even quote Jesse Pinkman properly.

68 comments
  • It must have been somewhere around early 2020 when I was casually browsing Mastodon. I found about a federated Reddit alternative and got immediately interested. I registered to Lemmy.ml and in 2021 founded Sopuli when federation got implemented properly. And here I am!

  • I remember seeing lemmy maybe 4+ years ago on some open-source subreddit. It had practically non-existent user base, so I've ignored it. After that, I remember a first wave of people making mastodon accounts (even before elon). There I've first heard of concept of "fediverse". I liked the idea but I honestly thought it had zero chances to compete with mainstream social media.

    And then everything turned to shit, making a gap between something like lemmy and reddit a lot smaller. So I've jumped the ship with everyone after the API shitstorm.

  • They took away apps that worked and apps that had accessibility features built in in favour of monetizing everything which sits very badly with me as a concept so I stopped being a part of how that company makes money and I joined here.

    Now my stupid comments make nobody money. Win win.

  • Several years ago I stumbled upon ActivityPub and the Fediverse. I created a few accounts across services, I think Friendica was the first. I quickly got bored with it because no one else from my real life was on it and the overall userbase was tiny. Move forward a couple of years and I left reddit when they took away third-party apps and mod tools. Lemmy had enough users at that point I've stuck around.

    I created a Mastadon account when Musk bought Twitter but that's gone idle. I was never that into Twitter, it's not a format I prefer.

  • im was banned in reddit because... i accidentally wrote lgor360 (first letter: L) instead of Igor360 (first letter: I) and reddit thought i was pretending to be a person with a nickname Igor360 (first letter: I and yes there is a person with such a nickname on reddit) and ban me...

  • Earlier this year, I decided to engage with social media, so I searched for lists of social media websites and signed up on the ones I could find. Lemmy was on one of the lists and also happens to be one of the websites I enjoy the most! 😃

  • It was part of my crusade to "Fediverse-sify" my internet experience. I started in Mastodon, then I added a Pixelfed account, then a Peertube one, then this Lemmy account (Which gave me a lot of good experiences) and now I'm trying Loops (a TikTok-like) and Wafrn (a Tumblr-like).

    Overall, I'm in love with the Fediverse.

  • I discovered it years before the great reddit exodus of 2023 but then it didn't have any discussions worth participating in so I didn't even make an account.

  • I was 2 r 3 months into my sanity break from Reddit when my friends (who knew i was a redditor) started sending me msgs like "lol what are you gonna do now?"

    Viewed the API drama from afar, then read some article mentioning lemmy. Tried a few instances but a lot had limits on new accts. Beehaw told me to pound sand. sh.itjust.works was the one that had the fewest roadblocks to join. Now i got a few accts spread out over grad, bear, and here.

    People seem to pine for reddit (or at least more content/users) but i like the small community. You can actually be heard here, and so too can you hear speech that isn't the same fucking meme ad-nauseam

  • My main reddit app was switching over to make a lemmy app. The app (boost) is my personal favorite, so I figured lemmy was the better of any of the reddit alternatives. It's larger userbase was also a good sign of it life expectancy.

  • I knew about it during the api thing. I would have switched over but I realized I could patch boost and use it anyway. However I've made some unhinged rants that were horribly worded on throwaway accounts and got ip banned. Every account I make is immediately permabanned. I wish muttr didn't shut down so I could just vent the unspeakable there. Wasn't worth it since I'm always going to be completely alone.

  • Initially made an account on lemmy.ml in 2022. I was eyeing the fediverse, and when I found that there is a "reddit alternative", I wanted to check it out, but there wasn't much activity so I didn't use it much other than checking on it occasionally.
    Then in 2023 I made an account on tchncs...when majority of users also hopped on lemmy.

  • I started using Lemmy because, after a previous Reddit blackout a few years, the CEO of Reddit (Steve Huffman, AKA Spez) released a statement that (while I've long sense forgotten exactly what he said) made it seem like he was disappointed in the Reddit community for not supporting pedophilia. I used alternativeto.net to find Reddit alternatives and, because Lemmy wasn't at the top of the list at the time, I used a few other websites before using Lemmy. At first I used both simultaneously but I deleted my Reddit account after the API changes.

68 comments